Creating The Life You Want To Live: Cat And Nat

By Coco

I am very proud to know these two women. If you don’t already know them, and even if you do, today you’re in for a treat!

Cat & Nat, otherwise known as The Social Common, are moms and best friends who have changed the way moms share their daily lives. I’m talking letting it all out and being completely honest about what it’s like to raise seven kids and the not-so-pretty side many of us feel the pressure to hide. These two have gotten me through some rough Mum moments just by reading the right Instagram post from them at exactly the right time. They seem to have an incredible knack for that.

Both of us grew up in Toronto and still live here. Our parents and our brothers and sisters still live in the area, too!

2. Did you go to College, University or the School of Hard Knocks?

Cat attended both college and university for Social Work. Nat ended up dropping out of college to pursue an amazing opportunity working for a start-up run by a badass female entrepreneur.

3. What is Social Common and how did it come to life?

We were both the first of our friends to have a baby, and we found motherhood to be extremely isolating. We figured we weren’t the only moms feeling alone in this journey, and we saw a need for a space where real relationships could be formed. We wanted to connect with other women and moms, but we wanted to do it with wine and without babies. So, we started hosting catered events and we’d bring in guest experts to speak. But in order to reach a larger audience and connect with moms all over, we needed to turn to social. We created our digital platform, and the rest is history!

4. Tell us a little about your career paths and how have they evolved?

We use every past job and experience to approach our current roles as entrepreneurs. We know that each step we took led us to where we are today and that includes the two of us reuniting to create our very own company. Being our own bosses and running a digital brand is the perfect fit for two girls who never liked to play by anyone else’s rules and always wanted to blaze our own trails. As the founders of Social Common / Cat & Nat, we never have to focus on titles or any of that corporate stuff that can hold people back from blowing shit up every day.

5. What are some of the challenges of being busy moms who are literally killing it in the social media sphere?

First of all, thank you for saying that. We will never forget how open, generous and supportive you were, and have always been with us, from the start. It’s women like you who have always inspired us to continue to make it our mission to empower and connect women all over the world.

We digress… Hey, we will never say raising seven kids between us and running this fast-paced business is easy, but we have each other and we have a very supportive family and group of friends who help us make it all possible. It takes a village, and we sure do lean on all of them.

6. What inspires you and keeps you both motivated?

We inspire each other every day, all day long. We have such a huge respect and admiration for each other in everything we do that it’s so easy to get excited to go to work every day and create original content. Other hardworking women like yourself inspire us, as well as all the moms out there doing a good job every effing day.

7. What are you both most proud of?

We are most proud of this dedicated group of devoted women from all over the world who join us in our journey each and every day. You cannot imagine the amazing, constant and positive feedback we get all day long from this online community of moms and women. There are messages and emails that come in daily thanking us for creating an open-minded, non-judgemental place to share the normal, imperfect side of motherhood. These women are the people that inspire us to continue to share our honest take on motherhood and make them laugh a little here and there…or a lot. We know laughter can turn a mom’s day right around.

We are also proud that we created a very successful and lucrative company with no investment in between drop offs and picks ups. We taught ourselves everything we know by constantly educating ourselves on everything digital and asking for help and advice from women who we saw were killing it in their fields.

8. What advice would you give to someone who is interested in following their dreams and taking the leap of starting their own business?

First, decide if this is a hobby or a job. Can you afford to fail? Are you all in or half in? If you decide it’s going to be your real job, then we have some advice:

Don’t wait, go now. Even if you plan for years, you will make mistakes. But you will learn from these mistakes. Don’t waste time – jump, take risks, ask for help and work harder than you ever have, because no one will work or care even close to as much as you will about YOUR business. No one but you.

People will tell you “you can’t do that,” “people won’t buy that,” “that’s a bad idea,” etc., but you need to believe in your passion so hard that the naysayers can’t touch you and the believers will be obsessed with you.

9. What are some of your favourite things about doing Social Common together?

We love running this business together because we get to wake up every single day and work together. We love that we never have to face challenges and adventures alone. We love that we both have the same idea that our children come first with no apologies. We love that we agree that if we aren’t loving it then it’s not right. We love that we know how to have fun while growing a big company. We love that we laugh when it gets “a bit much.” We love that we are both super energetic and dream so big that the things we want to do don’t even exist yet. We love that we get to work every day with a friend we consider family. We are lucky and we know it.

10. What are your hopes for the future of the Social Common brand?

If we told ya, we’d have ta kill ya. Ha!

Our mission has always been the same: to create a platform where moms can feel connected, supported and validated that they are doing a good job. This is a message we want to personally deliver to every mom all over the world, now and always. So, basically global domination.

Thank you so much to Cat & Nat for taking the time to do this interview. We know how busy you are and are thrilled to have the chance to get your perspective. We truly appreciate you creating a space for women to not only feel important and validated but also to not feel alone.